On the beatific Friday afternoon before Labor
Day this September, some 500 new UMass students and their families
gathered for a reception at the Mullins Center after a day of
moving into their campus quarters.
The summer-long drought that had left the
Valley uncommonly parched would be interrupted, two days later,
by a fearsome and protracted storm that marked, and probably
marred, moving-in day for thousands of other UMass students.
But these 500-plus were lucky: as one of the amenities afforded
to students of Commonwealth College, the university's new and
expanded honors program, they'd gotten to move in early, and
the sun shone all day long.
Casually dressed and clutching their maroon
Commonwealth College folders, the hundreds of students, parents,
siblings, and friends filled several sections of the huge indoor
arena. Seated among them, easy to distinguish in bright purple
T-shirts embellished with the phrase "The Spirit of Leadership,
Setting the Pace," were 100 student mentors, themselves
honors students and members of the fledgling honors college.
Enthusiastic college boosters all, the mentors represent another
of the college's amenities. They had been lending a hand all
day as the freshmen moved in, and would be keeping in touch to
help smooth their way as the semester progressed.
On the way to the special diploma they will
earn if they stay with the program, Commonwealth College students
may choose to live in "learning communities" of their
peers: honors floors in Field, Grayson, Webster or Dickinson
halls on Orchard Hill. The honors classes they will take
about a quarter of their total credits will be limited
to twenty-five students. They can also take advantage of "Pizza
and Prof nights," special dinners and colloquia, and expanded
and more personal advising services. While Commonwealth College
receives separate state funding which in no way affects the university's
general operating budget, the campus is heavily invested in these
students. Their choice of UMass represents a milestone in the
university's campaign to gain recognition as a world-class institution,
to forever shed its reputation as a safe state school, a school
of last resort.
Although any student who achieves a 3.2 grade point average may join Commonwealth College later, those who enroll as incoming students have already earned the description irritating to some of "best and brightest" in their class. They've not only graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes but have scored at least 1300 out of a possible 1600 points on their SAT exams. Their mean high school GPA is an impressive 3.9 out of 4.0. Their SAT scores averaged 1314, and they ranked in the top six percent of their high school classes. Though 456 are Bay-Staters fifty-two of them President William Bulger's "University Scholars," offered full scholarships as valedictorians and salutatorians of their high school classes as a group the final cohort of 574 entering students represents twenty-three states and twelve countries.
Twenty tables covered with white linens dotted
the floor of the arena, and servers were readying the steamtrays
and hors d'oeuvres. "Of those to whom much has been given,
much is expected," Linda Nolan, Commonwealth College's interim
dean, was saying over a microphone at the podium, quoting another
apostle of excellence, John Kennedy. High above, as Nolan spoke,
flew pennants bearing the names of former UMass basketball giants
Julius Erving and Lou Roe students similarly invested with
the university's expectations whose talents have since carried
them far.
Indeed, Nolan and others often invoke varsity
sports when called upon to defend Commonwealth College from charges
of elitism. It's a tag that has dogged the project since university
officials first announced plans to eventually build a $15 million
teaching facility in the Orchard Hill section of campus. Earlier
this year, Northampton's Daily Hampshire Gazette editorialized
that while it had always supported the concept of the college,
the idea of a separate building was disturbing when so many buildings
on campus are run-down. Opinions in the Daily Collegian were
less temperate: One letter-writer suspected UMass of "trying
to create a master race."
Nolan questions why the same criticisms aren't
leveled at the university's high-profile sports teams, whose
members receive such perquisites as scholarships and tutoring
and are housed together on campus. "Actually, the athletic
program is more elitist than Commonwealth College, because most
of us could never make an elite team," Nolan says. By contrast,
she argues, anyone who studies hard enough can get into the honors
college if they want to take on the work. To graduate with
the college's imprimatur, students must demonstrate "foundation
skills" in written and oral communication; take ten honors
classes, which are more demanding than typical courses; and complete
a thesis or other "culminating experience" of a scholarly
nature.
"Actually, they don't even need to do
that," says Nolan of non-honors students. "Anyone can
choose to take an honors course." Over three-quarters of
honors courses have non-honors enrollees, and the infusion of
$1.75 million in state aid has allowed the honors college to
more than double the number of such courses from 107 to
250. Finally, Nolan stresses that three-quarters of the classes
the honors students take are general university courses. Fears
of separate and elevated status are groundless, she says.
Arthur Stern, a professor emeritus of biology
who has been with the honors program since 1982 Nolan came
aboard in 1993 says the charge of elitism infuriates him.
"A 3.2 average I don't think that's elitist,"
he says. "It's attainable." Stern, who has a paternal,
urban-folksy air about him, wears his emotions on his sleeve
when it comes to the new college. As both an academic counselor
and a teacher of honors students over the years, he says, what
he keeps remarking, is the way they keep looking for more work.
"These kids are really wonderful; they
want to do so much," says Stern. "I think we should
let them. Something that gets me very upset in our society is
that, outside of academics in sports, for example
if people excel, they get top dollar. That's OK in our society.
But it isn't OK to excel in academics because you do additional
work. It doesn't make sense to me what all the noise is about."
Those concerned about ethnic and economic diversity see problems, however. Though Commonwealth College's glossy brochures and promotional video feature minority honors students prominently, very few are actually represented in its inaugural class. Of the 574 freshmen only three are black; eight are Hispanic, and thirty-eight are Asian.
And not all of the eighty-four high school
valedictorians and salutatorians attending UMass as part the
University Scholars program were accepted into the honors college;
some of these high-achieving high school students did not attain
the requisite SATs.
Therein lies the problem, according to Nelson
Acosta, director of the university's office for African American,
Latin American, Native American and Asian (ALANA) Affairs. SAT
scores have been shown to be closely correlated to students'
financial means and to the financial means of their school districts.
Financially well-off districts better prepare students for the
exams; well-off students can also take preparatory courses that
can raise their scores by over 100 points. Acosta supports the
idea of the college, but thinks officials ought to examine the
admissions policy, and consider fine-tuning it so that it takes
variables like financial background into account.
Julius Lester, a professor of Middle Eastern and Judaic Studies, who is black, says he is not particularly troubled by the low number of black students in the college this year. High-achieving minority students can choose to go to college pretty much anywhere they want, Lester said. At the same time, the university should continue to improve its recruitment efforts. If minority representation is as weak in a few years as it is now, "Then it would be a problem," Lester said.
At the Mullins Center reception this September afternoon, however, the talk wasn't of elitism. It was mostly of leaving home for the first time, for the students and, for the families, of seeing their children off. Nolan tells parents that she, too, has a freshman entering UMass.
Melissa Beasley, brand-new coordinator of
the learning communities in Orchard Hill, tells students she,
too, is new to campus, having arrived in Amherst just three weeks
ago. "My advice to you is, carry a map with you wherever
you go," says Beasley. Senior communications major Stacy
Palozie, a peer mentor, recalled her own moving-in day three
years ago. She couldn't believe how big and confusing the campus
was and she wasn't sure she and her roommate would get along.
They didn't, and went their separate ways, but she got used to
the campus. "It's been my experience that most things at
UMass work out this way," Palozie said. "Get help when
you need it," she told the freshmen. "You really need
to have fun," she added.
Art Stern talked about his three grown daughters
who used to tell him to walk in front of them not with
them at the mall, and to flash his headlights when he came
to pick them up at restaurants. His middle daughter played soccer
in college, he told the parents, and he and his wife attended
every match, but only recently did his daughter sit him down
to "tell me how it had given her such a lift" to see
her parents in the stands. "I want you to know that's how
your kids feel about you," Stern said. Several mothers wiped
tears from their eyes.
Half an hour later, seated outside the Mullins Center on a bench in the waning late afternoon sun, Janice and Bob Constantine of Everett reflected on their son Rob's decision to come to UMass and Commonwealth College. The oldest of their three children, Rob had applied to several small private colleges, representatives of which called him up and invited him to visit. Like all of the entering
Commonwealth students, Rob applied to UMass
not knowing until he was accepted that he had simultaneously
been accepted to the college.
Though Bob Constantine graduated from UMass himself in 1973,
he and Janice did not encourage Rob to come here, because they
thought a smaller setting would suit him better. But, Rob
who didn't follow any of the advice they gave him, Janice dryly
observed told them the day before the acceptance deadline
at the other colleges that UMass was his choice.
Rob likes both history and science, and "I
think he felt the university offered more majors," Janice
said. As for Bob, he recalled leaving the house for work the
morning Rob told him he wanted to go to UMass; though he'd wanted
his son to choose a smaller college, a bright side was beginning
to dawn on him. "I'm walking down the street thinking, 'This
means it's going to be $10-12,000 instead of $20-30,000 a year.
Maybe this is not so bad.'"
Janice said she just hopes Rob will find a
community of friends who will motivate him. "My hope is
that he'll get more personal attention in Commonwealth College,"
she said.
"I guess it's a matter of his own maturity"
added Bob. "Whether he takes the bull by the horns and seizes
the day."
Applying
herself to her studies was more than academic for Linda Nolan, graduate
alumna of UMass Amherst, director since 1993 of its honors program, and
interim dean of Commonwealth College while a nationwide search for a permanent
dean is underway. 